Sandy spotlights defense cuts

The winds of Hurricane Sandy hadn’t even stopped blowing before the storm — and the military response to it — became the latest chip in Washington’s game of bluff and counter-bluff over the future of the defense budget.

Political commentators were quick to point out that the National Guard troops who helped with the rescue and cleanup were at risk from automatic, across-the-board budget restrictions set to take effect Jan. 2 and more generally would take the brunt of cuts proposed in the Pentagon’s fiscal 2013 budget submission.

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“Even before Hurricane Sandy hit, National Guard armories were opened as shelters,” wrote Daniel Goure, a conservative defense analyst with the Lexington Institute. “National Guard units were deployed to provide immediate search and rescue capabilities for cities and towns in the hurricane’s path. … At first light … National Guard units were on the roads, looking for victims and clearing debris. It is ironic that the National Guard is likely to be particularly hard hit by proposed defense budget cuts.”

The conservative website Breitbart.com responded to Democratic charges that Mitt Romney would cut the Federal Emergency Management Agency by pointing out that it, along with the Guard, might still be cut under Obama. Its headline: “Obama’s sequester proposal slashes funds for FEMA, disaster relief.”

At issue is the threat of $500 billion in reduced defense budget growth over the next decade, known as sequestration, which has loomed over the heads of the Pentagon and the defense industry in the year since Washington’s deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. But more broadly, the Guard — and the reserve components of the four military services — also have felt threatened by service leaders’ budget proposals independent of sequester, in particular those of the Air Force.

Earlier this year, the Air Force proposed cutting hundreds of cargo aircraft operated by its Guard and Reserve units, setting up a backroom scuffle among service leaders even as they tried to present a polite, united front to Congress and the public.

The National Guard and the Reserves may not have even needed a Sandy to make their case on the Hill, where several key lawmakers are allies or members themselves, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.). But there’s no question that the response to the storm creates another political trump card.

Officials said more than 85,000 National Guard troops were put on alert to assist FEMA and local authorities with rescues, responses, cargo transport and other support missions, using equipment they alone had at their fingertips: fixed-wing cargo aircraft, heavy-lift helicopters, surveillance aircraft and more.